Quince and Quire

Giving and receiving

We rang in the new year with this fabulous pig bell, made by the 7-year-old. When you lift the string, the two little legs peeking from beneath the bell make a pleasant clatter as they swing about.

 

We received many wonderful handmade gifts this Christmas season, including this nativity, also made by the 7-year-old.

 

My talented friend Amber of Shagbark Studio gave us these lovely sachets, scented with balsam, in a handmade fabric basket. So nice for tucking in the linen closet!

 

My mom stitched little velvet acorns and that handmade strawberry gnome came from A Toy Garden. 

 

I made a doll quilt to fit on the decidedly not-handmade doll bed, using the crazy-bright colors my daughter loves.

 

Gifts need notes of thanks, which we made this weekend, each in our own way and according to our talents. (That bottom card uses a craft punch to make the evergreen needle design; the lettering I did quickly with nib and gouache.)  

Happy New Year!

Calm & bright

Little light

Little woodland

Little & last-minute

The teacher gift assembly line was in action this weekend. Here you see little ornament houses, waiting for ribbons to hang from a tree. We glued colorful scrap paper on top of cardboard from a cereal box to make them.

We made peppermint bark for the teachers, too, borrowing the idea shamelessly from this talented lady. Having a problem not eating the gifts, though. 

And, finally, the tea-drinking teachers received coasters (and tea!) in their gift bags. Those stacks of pre-cut fabric squares work great for a project like this. 

Flurry

We've got a flurry of flowers and paper and glue and tape happening here, as we make special surprises for mothers and daughters. I'll let you decide who made what for whom!

Classic spring project

This little project has been one of my most popular crafts for young children: it has been featured on craft blogs around the world, including mammafelice, Craft Gossip, and The Crafty Crow.

 

The baskets are colorful, cheerful and easy for kids to make. 

 

For variety, have your kids paint the baskets with acrylics and add glitter while the paint is wet.

You can find the tutorial here. Happy Spring!

It's never too late for luck

What can you do with very little time, bright colors, a craft punch, a glue stick (not pictured) and a few kids who want shamrocks?

 

You can make four leaf clover greeting cards in dazzling colors. 

 

What if you add a few alphabet stamps and use strips of paper?

 

You get bookmarks for all the young people in your life.

 

And then, you can do it all in reverse! Add colorful envelopes for your cards and bundle your bookmarks in rainbow order and you've got St. Patrick's Day covered.

I hope this gives you ideas for any last minute St. Patrick's Day crafting needs you (or your kids) may have! 

Heart

I hope everyone is enjoying this day as much as we are! I sent the kids off to school after a breakfast of heart pancakes, ready to deliver yarn-tied bags of treats to their buddies. My Valentine cards went out on time (a good thing) but I didn't photograph them (not so great), so I put that last photo up to show you last year's labor-intensive push-drill Valentines. Now I'm off to bake a chocolate cake! Happy day to everyone!

Solstice light

I hope everyone enjoyed the full moon, the lunar eclipse, and winter solstice! Such an amazing confluence of light and shadow.

I wish you all a happy finish to 2010. I'll be back in a week or so with fun projects for you and yours. 

Ornaments to make with kids (& tutorial links)

The kids and I have been busy making ornaments for our teacher gifts this year. We were inspired by the many projects featured on some of our favorite blogs. Below are five kinds of ornaments that we made. 

These felt wreaths were inspired by this post at the Magic Onions. I used wool felt scraps from the bevy of crowns I made a few years ago. I used my Japanese push drill to make quick holes, and we threaded the felt discs on fancy pipe cleaner and twisted the ends into a loop for hanging. Fast and easy! The kids loved this project best.

 

Our tiny fabric houses were inspired by a pattern in this book. I didn't follow the pattern, but simply cut up some squares and triangles from Moda fabric and tried sewing them together with fancy stitches and rick rack. The results are wonky but charming. My daughter had fun trying out the sewing machine (now I know why they put "speed governors" on them.) 

 

We made glittery egg carton jingle bells inspired by a project on the Crafty Crow. Cassi's jingle bell flowers are far more elegant, but ours do stand out on the tree with all of that glitter! 

 

We are making recycled ribbon spool ornaments with the children's art this year (the one pictured above has a greeting card image); you can find the tutorial from last year here. 

 

I made a two-part tutorial for these little books here and here. This is a more involved project, but with some planning and help, kids can do it! 

Any of these ornaments would make a great last-minute gift! Happy weekend!

That familiar feeling

It's getting to that point in this month of all months--that point when I start abandoning projects while adding new ones; crossing off one list and beginning another; feeling slightly frantic as the children open another window on the advent calendar; wondering why I can't eat all the chocolate caramels without having my wardrobe shrink.

The piles of stuff, bizarrely random to any outsider but perfectly sensible to me, threaten to overtake my little guest room studio: half-addressed cards, flannel pajamas, egg cartons, quilt squares, knitted scarves, scraps of silk, kite paper, pipe cleaner, acorn caps, buttons, shells, wool felt. It's all there. I look at it and start to think that maybe a handmade Christmas is just silly--after all, I do live in a town with stores.

It's the point where I will either lose perspective on the season--and hence lose the meaning--or take a step back. I am taking a step back. Some projects won't get finished, but there's one project I must work on every day: keeping my heart in the right place. Keeping my mind off acquisitions--even for other people--and remembering the meaning of enough. And good enough. Each day I am trying to sit in stillness to think about the coming of the Light. 

With that in mind, I'll be posting photos, probably without many words, over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy them. 

Little things, lately

Pie!

The two-year-old and six-year-old collaborated on this amazingly delicious, juicy, cinnamon-scented strawberry-rhubarb pie, made especially for their dad.

We used the beautiful fruit from our CSA. The recipe came from epicurious. Yum!

Little things

Spring in our part of the world is full of small gestures. An unseasonably warm morning lets us take our art outdoors. My children find pleasure in simple forms. Autumn's leaves are blown aside to reveal starry white blossoms. The neighbor's eggs are transformed with plant dyes. The forest, still brown, offers a surprise bouquet of daffodils. 

Should the small things be such a surprise? Do I doubt the return of the light? Do I wonder at the reawakening of the bulbs, the song of the birds, the fulfillment of faith that always happens? I do doubt it. And yet it happens anyway, this renewal: full of grace, and gently insisting that I believe.